The History of the Peloponnesian War

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CHAPTER IV

From the end of the Persian to the beginning of the Peloponnesian War—The
Progress from Supremacy to Empire

The way in which Athens came to be placed in the circumstances under which
her power grew was this. After the Medes had returned from Europe,
defeated by sea and land by the Hellenes, and after those of them who had
fled with their ships to Mycale had been destroyed, Leotychides, king of
the Lacedaemonians, the commander of the Hellenes at Mycale, departed home
with the allies from Peloponnese. But the Athenians and the allies from
Ionia and Hellespont, who had now revolted from the King, remained and
laid siege to Sestos, which was still held by the Medes. After wintering
before it, they became masters of the place on its evacuation by the
barbarians; and after this they sailed away from Hellespont to their
respective cities. Meanwhile the Athenian people, after the departure of
the barbarian from their country, at once proceeded to carry over their
children and wives, and such property as they had left, from the places
where they had deposited them, and prepared to rebuild their city and
their walls. For only isolated portions of the circumference had been left
standing, and most of the houses were in ruins; though a few remained, in
which the Persian grandees had taken up their quarters.

Perceiving what they were going to do, the Lacedaemonians sent an embassy
to Athens. They would have themselves preferred to see neither her nor any
other city in possession of a wall; though here they acted principally at
the instigation of their allies, who were alarmed at the strength of her
newly acquired navy and the valour which she had displayed in the war with
the Medes. They begged her not only to abstain from building walls for
herself, but also to join them in throwing down the walls that still held
together of the ultra-Peloponnesian cities. The real meaning of their
advice, the suspicion that it contained against the Athenians, was not
proclaimed; it was urged that so the barbarian, in the event of a third
invasion, would not have any strong place, such as he now had in Thebes,
for his base of operations; and that Peloponnese would suffice for all as
a base both for retreat and offence. After the Lacedaemonians had thus
spoken, they were, on the advice of Themistocles, immediately dismissed by
the Athenians, with the answer that ambassadors should be sent to Sparta
to discuss the question. Themistocles told the Athenians to send him off
with all speed to Lacedaemon, but not to dispatch his colleagues as soon
as they had selected them, but to wait until they had raised their wall to
the height from which defence was possible. Meanwhile the whole population
in the city was to labour at the wall, the Athenians, their wives, and
their children, sparing no edifice, private or public, which might be of
any use to the work, but throwing all down. After giving these
instructions, and adding that he would be responsible for all other
matters there, he departed. Arrived at Lacedaemon he did not seek an
audience with the authorities, but tried to gain time and made excuses.
When any of the government asked him why he did not appear in the
assembly, he would say that he was waiting for his colleagues, who had
been detained in Athens by some engagement; however, that he expected
their speedy arrival, and wondered that they were not yet there. At first
the Lacedaemonians trusted the words of Themistocles, through their
friendship for him; but when others arrived, all distinctly declaring that
the work was going on and already attaining some elevation, they did not
know how to disbelieve it. Aware of this, he told them that rumours are
deceptive, and should not be trusted; they should send some reputable
persons from Sparta to inspect, whose report might be trusted. They
dispatched them accordingly. Concerning these Themistocles secretly sent
word to the Athenians to detain them as far as possible without putting
them under open constraint, and not to let them go until they had
themselves returned. For his colleagues had now joined him, Abronichus,
son of Lysicles, and Aristides, son of Lysimachus, with the news that the
wall was sufficiently advanced; and he feared that when the Lacedaemonians
heard the facts, they might refuse to let them go. So the Athenians
detained the envoys according to his message, and Themistocles had an
audience with the Lacedaemonians, and at last openly told them that Athens
was now fortified sufficiently to protect its inhabitants; that any
embassy which the Lacedaemonians or their allies might wish to send to
them should in future proceed on the assumption that the people to whom
they were going was able to distinguish both its own and the general
interests. That when the Athenians thought fit to abandon their city and
to embark in their ships, they ventured on that perilous step without
consulting them; and that on the other hand, wherever they had deliberated
with the Lacedaemonians, they had proved themselves to be in judgment
second to none. That they now thought it fit that their city should have a
wall, and that this would be more for the advantage of both the citizens
of Athens and the Hellenic confederacy; for without equal military
strength it was impossible to contribute equal or fair counsel to the
common interest. It followed, he observed, either that all the members of
the confederacy should be without walls, or that the present step should
be considered a right one.